We All Live Here by Jojo MoyesMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Three and a half stars.
Lila is NOT keeping it together. After writing a best-seller about keeping your marriage alive, her husband left her for a bendy yoga mummy, then her beloved mother died and her step-father Bill has to all intents and purposes moved in and insists on cooking the girls 'healthy' meals which consist predominantly of lentils. Lila is dealing with Celie, a moody teenager, and Violet, a poo-obsessed nine-year old, she's overdue on delivering anything for her next book, the ancient plumbing in their fixer-upper Victorian house requires unblocking on an almost daily basis as well as the on-call services of an expensive plumber, and to add insult to injury Lila is forced to see 'the other woman' every day when she picks up her youngest from school. Oh, and her dog's barking is provoking numerous complaints from her neighbours.
Just when she thinks it can't get any worse, her American father Gene turns up after 35 years, broke and looking for somewhere to stay. Gene and Bill loathe each other and the house becomes a warzone as the two old men niggle at each other. Oh, and Bill has taken it upon himself to engage a landscape gardener to transform Lila's admittedly overrun garden turning it into a Somme-like swamp in the interim.
But annoying as he is, Gene could be the catalyst for change the family needs.
This was my first book by Jojo Moyes, although I have heard her name many times before, and I did enjoy reading it, but I have to say I have read very similar books before and I didn't think this brought anything new to the table.
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
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